Thousands gather before dawn for annual Neuse Bridge Run

By Charlie Hall, Sun Journal Staff

Published: Saturday, October 19, 2013 at 04:03 PM.

There were also volunteers aplenty, such as Kim Sworn and Morgan Cumbo, who arrived at 5 a.m. to help. Sworn is the mental health coordinator at Promise Place and Cumbo is a contract therapist there and a social worker at CarolinaEast Rehabilitation Center.

In the Saturday pre-dawn, while most of New Bern slept, a community upward of 2,000 people was awake and preparing for a busy day.

They were gathered along East and South Front streets near Union Point Park and the Alfred Cunningham Bridge — site of the ninth annual Neuse River Bridge Run for local charities.

The runners totaled nearly 1,600 for races across the bridges of the Trent and Neuse rivers and all through the historic districts of the city. The races were varied — 5k, 10k and the ambitious half-marathon, 13.1 miles.

Runners came for a variety of reasons — training and a love of running, along with assisting the eight local charities with race proceeds.

“I think it is a little of all of those,” said Aaron Arnette, a local attorney in the half-marathon who was using it as a tune-up for his first run in the New York Marathon in early November. “Some just want to finish and some are working on a time goal. It accommodates all gamuts of runners.”

He has been in training for the New York race for four years and last year got into it through the lottery system, only to be among those sidelines by Hurricane Sandy. The local race has been on his schedule all along.

“It is impressive how far this has come,” he said. “When it first started there were a couple of hundred and now it seems there are thousands.”

Some runners use it as a simple personal motivation.

“This is my sixth half-marathon and my fourth one in New Bern,” said David Wang, the deputy head master as the Epiphany School of Global Studies in New Bern. “This is my challenge. It’s not for training. For me, it is setting a personal goal to reach. And it is a beautiful run, to get out on the bridge and see the sun rise — hopefully.”

After heaving rains Friday night, the precipitation held off as the crowd gathered and the half-marathon runners sprinted away from East Front Street toward the Cunningham Bridge; followed in intervals by the 10K and 5K competitors.

Bruce Birnbaum said he was running for community, personal pride and health.

“This is my first organized race in 20 years,” he said. “I’ve run 29 full marathons, New York, Boston, all of them.”

For his return to competitive running, he tempered his efforts with the 10K.

It was a family affair, with his wife Deirdre Kiernan helping man one of the rest and water stations, located on George Street in front of the Tryon Palace gates.

Another runner training for a longer race was Andrea Marra of Havelock, preparing for the upcoming Croatan 24, a 50-mile event. It was her first time at the Bridge Run and she only decided to run on Friday.

The runners came in variety — bare-chested men and women sporting pony-tails dangling out the back of baseball caps. Unique among the thousands were members of the Reason to Run group, based out of Greenville.

Amber Decker of Vanceboro, Tracy Chapman from Greenville and Erika Galluppi of Raleigh all sported running attire and each wore a colorful tutu for their 10K efforts.

The tutu addition, said Decker “is just part of the fun.”

Irma Lappin of Greenville made the early morning drive with her family to compete in her third half-marathon, while training for an upcoming Disney race in Orlando, Fla.

She has been running about five years, beginning the routine after having her son Emanuel.

“Now, I just love running,” she said, adding that she averages 20 to 25 miles per week training.

There were also volunteers aplenty, such as Kim Sworn and Morgan Cumbo, who arrived at 5 a.m. to help. Sworn is the mental health coordinator at Promise Place and Cumbo is a contract therapist there and a social worker at CarolinaEast Rehabilitation Center.